14th Amendment of the United States Constitution: Civil Rights (1868)

Introduction

After the emancipation of former slaves was made part of the Constitution with the 13th Amendment in 1865, many were worried that states would still strive to infringe the civil rights of African Americans. The 14thAmendment was passed through Congress in 1866 as an attempt to obviate that concern. It was ratified by the requisite number of states by mid-1868.

The amendment’s first section includes the Citizenship Clause, Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process Clause, and Equal Protection Clause. These are some of the most litigated clauses in the entire Constitution. The second section replaced the Three-fifths Compromise, apportioning the House of Representatives and Electoral College using each state’s adult male population. It also allowed the denial of voting rights “for participation in rebellion, or other crime,” allowing disenfranchisement for the commission of a felony. The third section disqualifies federal and state candidates who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” Section four affirms public debt authorized by Congress while declining to compensate slaveholders for emancipation. The fifth section provides congressional power of enforcement.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

• What effect did its framers intend the 14th Amendment to have on state power relative to national power?
• What effects has the amendment had on civil rights in practice? How have these effects changed over the years since its adoption, due to changing interpretation and changing culture?

The 14th Amendment: Citizenship Rights, Equal Protection, Apportionment, Civil War Debt

Section 1

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Source: National Constitution Center. (n.d.). Amendment XIV. Interactive Constitution. https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xiv